Official Read an Ebook Week - Free BOOK

CONVERGENCE 2012 is part of Smashword's "Read an Ebook Week" in an effort to promote more reading  I am participating and offering CONVERGENCE 2012 for free.  So starting the 4th of March until the 10th you'll be able to get a copy for FREE.  So, share the news and enjoy!  Head on over to http://www.smashwords.com at the stroke of midnight to get your hands on a completely FREE copy of CONVERGENCE 2012...  Remember starts the 4th and ends on the 10th.   

And the winners are....

Winners of the Jan 02 2012 autographed book giveaway on Goodreads.com are:
01) Lexi W. of Greenwood, ME
02) Julie F. of Montevideo, MN
03) Larry K. of  Lebanon, OR
04) Michelle S. of Columbus, NE
05) Theresa W. of Caledonia, NY
06) Adam S. of Falls Village, CT
07) Lori H. of  Fort Wayne, IN
08) Jennifer H. of Jacksonville, FL
09) Beau S. of Sanford, MI
10) Bobby J. of Scottsdale AZ

I'm getting my copies in hand on the 4th end of day and will be shipping the copies out on the 6th.  I will be emailing each winner with instructions I need from them (double checking shipping info, etc.).  Each book will be emboss-sealed with the mark and also autographed in two locations (cover in metallic ink, and inside front page black ink) [as is standard on all my signature editions.

There were 590 people who entered and to you, I say "Thank you for your interest" and since I personally hate losing I am offering a free digital version from smashwords.com

The code you will need to use on checkout is: RD95Z  This code will only be good until 01/09/2012 (one week).  You enter the code after you add the book to your cart at: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/74575

Act like you are going to buy the book, add it to your cart and then there will be a part of the order process where you can enter a discount coupon code.  (I think you also need to create an account but you're getting a free book out of it...)

Again, congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who entered!

Sun's Coronal Mass Ejection hits Earth's Magnetic Field

According to SpaceWeather.com "A CME hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 24th at approximately 1800 UT (02:00 pm EDT). According to analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the impact caused a strong compression of Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to penetrate all the way down to geosynchronous orbit for a brief period between 19:06 UT and 19:11 UT. Earth-orbiting spacecraft could have been directly exposed to solar wind plasma during that time."

The impact also sparked a geomagnetic storm which will last the next three days sparking lots of auroras...

Auroras... "These are the strongest and most beautiful auroras I've ever seen," says Øye, a veteran observer of Northern Lights. "I can only imagine what the display must have been further north."

High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras as Earth's magnetic field continues to reverberate from the CME impact. The best time to look is usually during the hours around local midnight.

Is it me or is Cali Rockin?

So is it me or is there a LOT of seismic activity going on in California right now?

This is the activity within last 7 days...  1,305 quakes?  Granted the majority of these are small, but this does seem to be a lot.  Anyone know anything about quakes?  Share if you do...  I have a part of the story where the Bay Area is hit with a pretty large one (8.0)...

Unknown comet hits sun and causes solar flares...

Image linked from SpaceWeather.com (story Monday Oct 3, 2011)

Oct 1st a previously unknown comet (detected the day before) slams into the sun and then two flares occurred.  Pretty amazing stuff.  One flare is heading for us.  Supposed to cause some spectacular auroras, etc.  The only thing that kinda bugs me is that Planet Slayers use stars as weapons and seeing this reminded me of them instantly.

"The part of the eruption centered on sunspot 1305 hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The relatively slow-moving (500 km/s) cloud is expected to reach our planet on Oct. 4th or 5th, possibly causing geomagnetic storms when it arrives. "

Normally this type of stuff doesn't even register with me, but when you take into consideration the flare we had in 1859 things like this can become a very scary situation.

Carrington Super Flare
On 1 September 1859, Carrington and Richard Hodgson, another English amateur astronomer, independently made the first observations of a solar flare. World wide reports on the effects of the geomagnetic storm of 1859 were compiled and published by Elias Loomis which support the observations of Carrington and Balfour Stewart Magnetic storm On 1 September 1859, Carrington and Richard Hodgson, another English amateur astronomer, independently made the first observations of a solar flare. World wide reports on the effects of the geomagnetic storm of 1859 were compiled and published by Elias Loomis which support the observations of Carrington and Balfour Stewart

Magnetic storm
On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, most notably over the Caribbean; also noteworthy were those over the Rocky Mountains; that were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. According to professor Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, "people in the northeastern U.S. could read newspaper print just from the light of the aurora."

Instead of telegraph machines wigging out, we'd have larger problems...

Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases even shocking telegraph operators. Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire. Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.

What would happen if we had a similar event to the one in 1859? (Video above explains some of it...)

The flare coming doesn't appear to be a big deal so far, but it was eerie to see the video and think of the Planet Slayers...

~ Rob

Bay Area Earthquake got my Attention...

Scary...  I have a huge earthquake which happens in CONVERGENCE 2012 around Daly City area and that one was Huge!  Thankfully this was a small one (only 3.5) but still shocking to see.  The earthqauke in my story doesn't happen until after January 2012...

Signature Edition Book giveaway!

I'm giving away 10 copies of CONVERGENCE 2012 "Signature Edition" over at GoodReads.com Check out the link below!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Convergence 2012

by Robert R. Ricks

Giveaway ends January 02, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Working on a new T-Shirt design...

Here's the concept... I'm also playing with the idea of silk screening the image in black on a white tee and then Tie-Dying it with a blueish spiral...  I'll keep you posted!

You can get printed version from Barnes and Noble now...

Just went to bn.com and saw that you can get the print version from there as well.  Gonna go into the local store and see if they'll carry copies in the stores as well as online.  Thought that was pretty cool.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/convergence-2012

Rob

What the hell is the SIGNATURE EDITION?

The CONVERGENCE 2012 SIGNATURE EDITION is a special edition of the book which has a custom seal on the cover of the book as well as the front page.  It is signed on the cover and dedicated to whomever you wish on the front page.  Additionally, I have this campaign going on called "The Marked" which is on the official website as well as in the back of the book that is like a special "Thank you" to the people who support me with this book.  All SIGNATURE EDITION buyers will be listed among The Marked.  The book will be updated every six months (print & eBook).  I also will be adding to the blog as well so you'll be able to prove to people that you were instrumental in helping me continue my career in writing!

So what does it set you back?  It's $25 (+$6 S&H) and I keep a few books on hand to try to speed the whole process up.

So you want one? Well you can grab a copy at http://www.convergence2012.com/signature/

Rob

Question: "Do I Believe in Aliens?"...

OK, so I got asked if I believe in aliens.

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: I've always been very curious about the universe we live in and wondered if there was other life out there in the ocean of stars.  I'm also one of those "Show me proof".

Where do I find proof?  Pyramids come to mind, Stonehenge, crop circles (without broken stalks) and Nazca lines in Peru are just a few of the things that make me say "Hmmmm".  Why?  because why the hell would someone go through all the trouble of constructing things like the Nazca lines where you can't enjoy them at ground level?  I mean imagine the conversation between the builder and his friend...
"Hey Bill I just finished my masterpiece..."
"Yeah?  Where is it?"
"Um dude, we're standing on it."
"Looks like a fuckin' line to me..."
"What?!  It's a bird man!"
"Yeah, sure it is..."
"Crap.  It's a bird man..."        

Do I think that aliens come down and anal probe hillbillies? Yes, but probably just to fuck with their heads.  I'm a firm believer that first contact has come and gone and there are some alien species among us, probably something similar to the whole Men in Black thing...

I think the ones that are among us are very good at hiding because we human beings are very susceptible to FEAR, I think we're more likely to kill something first and then be like "Oh that was a peace ambassador here to offer us help against an invading armada... Ooops my bad." later.

I suspect the ones that are here, are observing and scoring us.  Once we get past "Dumb-ass hairless monkey" status, then they may attempt to offer us a ticket to the big show.  I also wouldn't be surprised if they're standing right next to us and can see us but we can't typically see them because maybe they are slightly off-phased?  Maybe they reside in an alternate dimension that is very thin and acts like a two-way mirror?  Hell I wouldn't be surprised if the Earth is the equivalent to a galactic "Jersey Shore" that the aliens get around and watch...  Speaking of Jersey Shore, could you imagine if the survival of the human race depended on being scored based off of some random "reality-based" TV show and it was Jersey Shore?   Oh man, we'd be fucked...  Just saying.

Original Video Trailer for Convergence 2012

So how did I decide to write CONVERGENCE 2012?

I've been asked this a couple of times and so I figured the blog is a good place to answer it.

September 2009 I went to bed like any other time and had a crazy dream about an elf but not an elf.  The dream basically presented to me the concept of what if mythology was based off of alien encounters?  Then I woke up with a very clear image of Xanari fixed in my mind.

I went about my day and the dream wouldn't let me go.  I kept thinking about Xanari and laughed it away as I continued my daily chores.

The next night I slept again and dreamed of a white liquid which was truly remarkable.  Healing properties and the ability to shift its taste to whatever I wanted.  When I woke from that dream I scratched my chin and said "WTF?" because this dream also plagued me all day long, but it was now mixing with Xanari and no matter what was going on I kept revisiting those pieces.

The odd dreams kept coming and I kept telling my wife about it and I finally decided to start writing.  When I sat down to write the title was instantly in my head CONVERGENCE 2012.  I realized that even in 2009 that calling the book CONVERGENCE 2012 was potentially a very bad idea as typically a book when COMPLETED can takes over a year and a half to get picked up and published.

It didn't phase me and I started writing.  Something amazing happened when I sat down.  I didn't have a timeline, I didn't know where the story was going to go and when I started typing it just happened. Even now when I go back and reread it (I've now read the book 6 times) I'm still mystified.  Why?  because I don't remember writing large chunks of the story.  It was as if the book wrote itself.  (Spooky)...

In any event that is how I decided to write CONVERGENCE 2012...